21 May, 2006

Bloggercue

First off, let me apologise for dragging my camera along and not taking a single picture. You'll miss out on seeing Ivy's cute new puppy. You'll also miss the UT Orange hallway, the adorable bathroom with the giant octopus on the wall and two of the saddest pit bulls neglected in the neighbor's backyard.

I was telling my family about yesterday's event and my dad chimed in with this thought:

That's strange, hanging out with a bunch of people you only know from having blogs.

Upon further reflection, I think it's not strange at all. We all obviously love to write and read. We all have great senses of humour. In fact, it's a darn sight less strange than hanging out with people from work. Work friends you know because you're all bonded by a common goal--the getting paid. With blogger friendships you read the blogs you like because they have something in common with you, what the others have written strikes some chord. Beats hanging out with the lady who forces you to be nice to her so that you can get the best ballpoint pens out of the supply room.

Anyway--enough dimestore philosophy.

People, Smyrna is a HIKE from Hermitage. Let me tell you. It is a long way to that Tipperary. (Michael, you just think about THAT next time you give me krep for not showing up!) I was late (hate to be late) because we mistakenly turned the wrong way on Sam Ridley. But once I finally found the place the fun was immediately underway.

You know it's gonna be a grand time when women start off ogling your sexy husband. It's nice to have my judgment confirmed. ;-p Funnily enough, even though I offered him to bothwomen for the low low price of $8.95, they refused. Perhaps if I took credit cards....

I had met Michael, Ivy and Aunt B. before. So they were easy. I swear, there is nothing like "meeting" people you already know. I was terrified that when I introduced myself people would think "YOU? You're the blog I read? Not anymore, sister. You are too frightful to look at. Bye." That did not happen--at least out loud--when I FINALLY met Malia, Heather, Kathy T. and Michelle. The only drawback to having all these cool people in one place is that there were too many fascinating conversations going on, and it was hard to choose. We were all laughing and joking and getting caught up and playing with one of the cute kids. Did I mention that Malia, Heather, Ivy and Kathy all have the most adorable and well-behaved kids? Seriously. All the kids minded their moms and were polite. It was very cool to see that there is hope for the generations yet to come.

I did get torn away from the blogger conversations to meet with the most unique gubernatorial candidate I've ever had the pleasure of talking with in my life. Marivauna Stout Leinoff is running as an independent. Her three part plan consists of bringing back the power of referendae to the citizens of Tennessee; abolishing the prison system & legalising marijuana. I'm with her on all but the prison abolition. I like prisons. I like knowing that they are there so that when you stab an old lady to take her social security money we have a place to put you in "time out". I was ultimately turned off by Ms. Stout-Leinoff's proposition that everyone deserves rights except pedophiles. Her three point plan includes establishing an island for the exile of pedophiles. It sounds like a Law & Order SVU reality show.

This is the part where I REALLY wanted to sell my husband dirt cheap. Anybody who is married knows that when you are with your spouse at a party and you are in an uncomfortable conversation you should be able to give your spouse some kind of signal after which they will come bail you out. But no. He enjoyed watching me not laugh out loud at Pedophile Island. That was his way of paying me back for believing that we should give Independent candidates a forum for addressing the public as a way to encourage outgrowth from the two-party system. It was also his way of being able to laugh at me all the way home.

Anyway, after I excused myself I got shanghaied into speaking into Michael's iRiver--which means that my tremulous voice can be heard on the podcast saying penispenispenis. It's a long story. You just have to listen to the podcast. (Link when I can find it...)

After much more laughter and confusion we hightailed it over to Ivy's. Turns out she actually lives one street away from one of our best couple friends. All these years we've been hanging out in Ivy's backyard and had no idea. Sorta like that Liza Minelli song. Poor Aunt B. had to hear me ramble on and on about this being "Dan and Hollie's neighborhood." I was just that freaked by the smallworldness of it all.

Once at Ivy's the fun began again, although we were minus Michael who was "buying a house." I was bummed because I barely got to talk to him at EJoes and was thinking we'd get all caught up at Ivy's. Then he never showed. Crumble. Oh well. We had so much fun at Ivy's that it was a total blast and I swear I'm going to throw a copy-Kat bloggercue in a couple months. If I can convince everyone to drag their broods to the 'tage.

Oh man, there was just a mountain of delicious food. Can I just tell you that Aunt B's potatoe (ha!) salad is every bit as good as promised. I had like four helpings of that stuff. Malia's Hummingbird cake (thank you again, girl) was fabulous. And there were ribs, hotdogs, cheetoes and grape soda. All of us LOVE grape soda. I think it is now the official drink of BloggerCue. My only regret is that I didn't have any of the ribs because I thought they were beef until too late. After I discovered they were Pork we had all moved on.

To top off all the grandiosity, I finally got to meet Rachel of Women's Health News. That was a huge treat, because I really wanted to meet her, but figured she'd pulled a Michael and was off buying a house or something.

I just had so much fun meeting everyone. I heartily encourage people to come to the next blogger meet-up. Everyone is shy, but once we're all there it's too much fun and everyone has a good time. Hey, I'm QueenShy and I finally made it. So, next time I would love to see absolutely everybody on my blogroll show up. (I was starting to type in links and then realised that, dude, if you're on the blogroll, I wanna meet you in person.)

I would also like to go on record as saying that you can call me Ishmael. Because I have decided that Kleinheider is the White Whale for any blogger meet-up. Yes, I know Ishmael isn't the one with the whale fixation in that book, but I wanted to say "call me Ishmael."

Thanks in abundance to Ivy for opening her home to all of us, and cooking up a wonderful feast. You are the woman, Ivy.

It was so nice meeting you. I didn't hear YOUR conversation with the candidate, but the island was the train wreck that I couldn't help but eavesdrop on. I wish I had heard your conversation, too. (Notice I didn't actually want to participate.)

Anyhow, thanks for understanding that two year olds can't be perfect, I'm always a little nervous about inflicting my kids on other people.

Yeah, sorry to have to bail on Ivy's Blogger-que but attempting to get all the stuff I need to get done so I can move into my house when I take possession of it later this week...I'd have been no fun at all....